How can I get my web.config file to show errors remotely?

Question

I am trying to view the errors for my website, when I go to the site i get this message:

Server Error in '/' Application.

Runtime Error

Description: An application error occurred on the server. The current custom error settings for this application prevent the details of the application error from being viewed remotely (for security reasons). It could, however, be viewed by browsers running on the local server machine. 

Details: To enable the details of this specific error message to be viewable on remote machines, please create a <customErrors> tag within a "web.config" configuration file located in the root directory of the current web application. This <customErrors> tag should then have its "mode" attribute set to "Off".


<!-- Web.Config Configuration File -->

<configuration>
    <system.web>
        <customErrors mode="Off"/>
    </system.web>
</configuration>

Notes: The current error page you are seeing can be replaced by a custom error page by modifying the "defaultRedirect" attribute of the application's <customErrors> configuration tag to point to a custom error page URL.


<!-- Web.Config Configuration File -->

<configuration>
    <system.web>
        <customErrors mode="RemoteOnly" defaultRedirect="mycustompage.htm"/>
    </system.web>
</configuration>

So what I've done is create a web.config file with this in it:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
  <system.web>
     <customErrors mode="Off"/>
  </system.web>
</configuration>

But sadly for me that really made jack all difference. What am I doing wrong here guys?

Answer 1

Try this: CustomErrors mode="Off"

By the way, asp net project templates include web.config file (it should be in the root folder of your project), so you don't have to create it manually. May be you have created another one?

Answer 2

If you are seeing errors locally, but not remotely, then try adding this to the web.config;

<system.webServer>
    <httpErrors errorMode="Detailed" />
</system.webServer>

This is a feature of IIS to hide potentially compromising internal workings of your website to outside users, so there is a reason why it's not det as default.